Joey Gough: Ride Like a Girl 2015 - Video

Joey Gough might be a new name to many of you, but that will change soon enough as this girl can shred, regardless of what bike she's on,


In late 2014 as I stood freezing cold and soaking wet in the middle of another windy BMX track, I decided I needed something to ride in the off-season that would keep me motivated to ride in these conditions. After a quick call to Olly Wilkins at DMR Bikes, I soon had a DMR Bolt in my hands, the perfect steed to get any BMX racer through the UK winter.

Although I'd raced quite a lot of 4X in the past, my experience on a full suspension bike was fairly limited so I was a little nervous about how it would handle. I soon realised I had nothing to worry about and had an absolute blast riding all the way through the winter at the closest spots to me, Chicksands and Woburn. By the time the new season of BMX racing came round in spring, it just wasn't giving me the same buzz anymore. I started racing BMX when I was 3 and I have fell in and out of love with it on several occasions - I knew this was one of those times. I was bored of racing and riding the same tracks over and over and needed some new terrain to get the adrenaline running again. The one thing I've never got tired of is flying through the air, whatever bike it's on!

From then on I spent the rest of the year riding trails and taking trips to places I'd never been before such as Tidworth Freeride, Black Mountains and Kinver. I love the buzz of hitting new jumps and these spots didn't disappoint, with both Black Mountains and Kinver serving up some 40 footers. As you can see from the video, things didn't always go quite to plan, but as my friend Mick told me " If you wanna do the dance, sometimes you've gotta pay the piper"! The racer in me hadn't quite made a full departure, but it was the big wheels that I ended up racing rather than the little ones. The grassroots feel to the race was something I'd been missing, riding til dusk Saturday night, chilling around the campfire with a few beers, then heading off to sleep in my little van. I decided to race in the guys class with my friends as I was just there for fun, not looking for glory, but surprised myself with a 6th place finish in the Masters class and 21st fastest time on the day.

In the last days of summer, I found myself in new territory, riding the trails of Verbier, Pila and Chatel, thanks to an invite from my good friend Anja Rees-Jones (Bike Verbier Guide and ex-World Cup DH racer). Taking in the immense views, I asked myself why I hadn't done this before? Since competing in my first 4X World Champs in Les Gets in 2004, I always vowed to go back to the Alps on a proper riding trip, but it's taken me 11 years to do it. Then I realised why. I've always followed my heart and ridden whatever makes me smile the most at that moment in time...and that's just what I'll keep doing.

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